ReCollection ZH
Product + Space
Concept + Strategy
Old office furniture, new design.
ReCollection ZH brings together circular design, upcycling and local production in a sustainable furniture collection. Retired office furniture from the University of Zurich became 15 high-quality, repairable pieces, each with a character of its own and up to 97 % recycled content.
Services
Concept, Product Design, Production, Implementation, Spatial Design
Client
15
Pieces of furniture
97 %
Recycled content
100 %
Made in Zurich
Too good to throw away.
What happens to office furniture that’s no longer needed, but whose materials still have real value? That question was the starting point for ReCollection ZH. Instead of being thrown away, retired filing cabinets, drawer units and desks from the University of Zurich’s stock were to become the raw material for new products.
The challenge was to give existing materials a second use that added as much value as possible, and to turn them into furniture that is functional, beautifully made and economically reproducible. An approach that doesn’t just treat the circular economy as a principle, but builds it right into the product design process.
Take apart. Recombine. Rethink.
We took old office furniture apart and combined the pieces into new design objects with forms and functions all of their own. Production stayed local, too: every step, from CNC machining and welding to 3D printing, took place in the canton of Zurich.
Our design principle of layers and contrasts lets you see where the materials came from. Signs of wear, screw holes and old surfaces meet clean shapes and monochrome blocks of colour. The result: 15 distinctive upcycled furniture prototypes.
A second life with a future.
ReCollection ZH shows how resource-conscious use of materials and high-quality furniture design can go hand in hand. The Pill Table, for example, combines MDF from an old shelf with stainless steel rods from a retired table and, depending on the version, reaches up to 92 % recycled content by weight. The two-part coat rack even hits 97 %.
The result is a collection of 15 durable, repairable pieces of furniture that put existing materials in a new context and give them a new purpose.
The key insight: circular design doesn’t start with choosing sustainable materials, but with how we treat what’s already there. When existing resources become the starting point for design, new possibilities open up for form, function and aesthetics.
